23/4/J: Air raids

23/4/K: Voluntary organisations

Assorted printed material produced by the Air Raid Defence League, the
Friends Relief Service, the War Damage Claimants' Association and the National
Council ofSocial Service

23/4/L: Spitfire Funds and salvage

Publicity and requests for support for Spitfire Funds

Items on salvage, waste and rubbish

23/4/M: National Service

Assorted leaflets on recruitment to Civil Defence and the armed forces

BOX 5 : PUBLIC REACTIONS TO AIR RAIDS IN LONDON, 1940. USE AND OPINION
OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHELTERS. OBSERVATIONS OF BEHAVIOUR IN SHELTERS

Public Shelters

Reactions to alarms; use of public shelters; types of shelters and facilities;
descriptions of behaviour, dress, morale; accounts of overheard conversations
and incidents. Observations made chiefly in London by full-time Mass-Observation
investigators; some reports from voluntary observers. For further reports
on air raids, see Directive Replies 1940

23/5/A: Observations gathered June - July 1940

23/5/B: Observations gathered August 1940

News Quotas (JS) August 1940

23/5/C: Observations gathered September 1940

File D: Observations gathered October - November 1940

23/5/E: Tube shelters : observations in the London Underground, September
- November 1940

23/5/I: Tilbury shelter, October 1940

23/5/J: Tube shelter publications, 1940

Note on papers The Swiss Cottager and Piccadilly Gazette
produced bytube shelterers

BOX 6 : USE OF SHELTERS; EFFECTS ON PERSONAL LIFE OF AIR RAIDS; SLEEPING
AND EATING PATTERNS; EAR PLUG USE; HEALTH AND FIRST AID; MORALE

23/6/A: Personal diary 5.10.40 - 9.10.40

An account by full-time Observer, KB of her trip from Bristol to London,
her family home in Wandsworth and her flat in Fulham; includes information
of London bomb damage and on people's attitudes. Description of the plight
of friends who had been bombed out

23/6/B: Questionnaire on use of shelters, November 1940

Survey of sleeping habits, choice of sleep-place and opinions on the
safety of shelters. Carried out in London areas; Shepherds Bush, Nottinghill
Gate, Streatham, Finchley and Kilburn, approx. 200 interviews

Table of results

23/6/C: Household readjustments, October 1940

Small survey by NM and CF on domestic arrangements during air raids,
including sleeping patterns, use of shelters, games played, food available,
first aid, clothing and so on. Kilburn and Stepney areas

23/6/D: News Quota Survey October 1940

Questions put to people in Kilburn and Streatham about reactions to the
latest news, amount of sleep they have been getting, getting out of London
and sleeping in the Underground

BOX 7: ARP AND ATTITUDES TO ARP WARDENS; THE EFFECTS OF AIR RAIDS; FEAR OF PARACHUTISTS; LOCAL DEFENCE VOLUNTEERS (LDV); PROSECUTION UNDER THE DEFENCE REGULATIONS; AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION APPEALS

Observations made in heavily blitzed areas of London, including Stepney,
Paddington, and Walthamstow. Interviews with people whose homes have been
bombed, impressions of morale, comments on post-raid services and availability
of information

Official leaflets

Press cuttings on air raid damage

Leaflets of local Tenants' Defence Leagues, etc.

23/7/B: Post raid services, October 1940

Press cuttings, leaflets and correspondence

Leaflets from the Air Raid Damage Relief Fund

23/7/C: Quality of life during air raids, October 1940

Selection of letters from friends and relatives to Mass-Observation volunteer
panel members: covers all aspects of life during air raids, including evacuation,
reactions to news, shelter social life, sleeping habits, inconveniences
caused by war conditions. Letters from all over Britain

23/7/D: Effects of air raids on leisure, entertainment and shopping

Assorted notes and observations relating to the effects of blackout on
shopping habits, use of cafes, cinemas, libraries, colleges, clothing and
fashion trends

Interviews carried out in September 1940 on visiting friends, domestic
activities, radio listening, and newspaper reading, games, eating habits

23/7/E: ARP and ARP Wardens 1939 - 40

Impressions and accounts of incidents at wardens' posts including observations
on the behaviour of wardens

23/7/F: ARP Questionnaire, June 1940

Report : "The ARP Card and its Effects". Information based
on 105 interviews with householders in 4 areas of London about the ARP card
distributed by the Ministry of Home Security. The card contained information
of local ARP services

Press-cutting re ARP recruitment, The Star 10.6.40

ARP questionnaire with replies

23/7/G: Barrage, September 1939 - 40

Reactions to the sound of anti-aircraft guns. Note on blimps (barrage
balloons)

23/7/H: German bomber down, 1939 - 40

Report: rumours of an aeroplane being brought down near Romford, sent
in by volunteer, 10.9.39

23/7/I: Fear of parachutists, May 1940

Impressions based on indirect interviews about the likelihood of German
soldiers landing by parachute

23/7/J: Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), June - September 1940

General reports from Worcester and Fulham

23/7/K: Appeal for support of munitions and aircraft production, 1940
- 41

Report on Aluminium Appeal, 15.7.40

Account of an exhibition of Messerschmitt 109 at Croydon, in aid of Croydon
"Spitfire" Fund

Assorted notes and reports on appeal funds, War Weapon Weeks, and propaganda
including a Spitfire badge

23/7/L: Regulations and offences, 1940

Copy ofEveryman's Guide to the War Regulations, 1940

Notes on cases of prosecutions under the Defence Regulations from the
press, July 1940

BOX 8 : AIR RAIDS IN BRITAIN, 1940-41 TOWNS: A - D

Apart from the first file which contains general information about the
bombing of provincial towns, the files contain reports, letters, leaflets,
official forms and memoranda and other items relating to a specific town
or area. Much of this material has been donated to Mass-Observation by members
of the volunteer panel, but the main reports come from full-time Mass Observation
investigators

Further material on air raids is filed with the Directive Replies for
1940

Additional town files which have been added after the first sorting
have been interfiled alphabetically (hence C2)

Other information about air raids may be found in the Topic Collection:
TOWN AND DISTRICT SURVEYS

23/8/A: Effects of air raids

Report : The Effect of Air Raids in Great Britain published by
The Economic League (Central Council). Duplicated copy, 1.7.40

Report : Reactions to Air Raids as Observed by Citizens Advice Bureaux
(Home Intelligence, from Stephen Taylor to Mary Adams), September 1940 ?
References to a number of cities and towns

Report by Lionel Fielder of Ministry of Food who accompanied Tom Harrisson
to Southampton, 3.12.40. No title, but discusses reactions of civilians
to bombing. Annotation "Lord Woolton took this to Cabinet"